The last decade in Brazil has underscored the fragility of many of the socioeconomic gains witnessed earlier this century. Unemployment and poverty are high, and inflation is surging. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, an increasing number of Brazilians were facing an uncertain economic future. Yet much of the analysis has focused on macro-level trends, policy reforms, and national-level partisan battles, glossing over the individual experiences of Brazilians across the country. A new work seeks to provide a richer context to these discussions: in Precarious Democracy: Ethnographies of Hope, Despair, and Resistance in Brazil, former Wilson Center fellow Benjamin Junge and his co-authors provide nuanced ethnographic portraits of the lives and concerns of Brazilians “far from the halls of power,” helping us better understand the political and social forces sweeping the country.

Join the Brazil Institute on November 2, 2021 at 1:30pm EST for a discussion of Precarious Democracy and what the book can tell us about the present moment in Brazil.